Google withdrew its mainland search operation in 2010 and the block hardened through 2014. Nothing about it is partial or intermittent any more.
What is unreachable#
Every Google property, as a single decision rather than a service-by-service one: Search, Gmail, Maps, Drive, Docs, Photos, Calendar, Translate, YouTube and the Play Store. Any app that authenticates through a Google account will also fail, which catches people who have never thought of those apps as Google products.
The Play Store being unreachable has a consequence worth planning around: on an Android phone you cannot install anything new once you have landed, unless you already have a working VPN. Chinese Android phones use manufacturer app stores instead, which will not carry the apps you want.
What works normally#
Apple services — iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, the App Store, Apple Maps — all function on a Chinese connection. Microsoft services — Outlook, Office, OneDrive, Teams — likewise. That is the practical escape route: if your email is Microsoft-hosted, the firewall barely touches your trip.
Bing reaches you, because Microsoft operates a censored Chinese version, but the results you get inside China are filtered and are not the results you would get at home. It has also been cut off briefly before now. Treat it as a fallback, not a plan.
The preparation that matters#
Do this before you fly, because none of it is possible afterwards without a working VPN:
- Forward your key bookings to a non-Gmail address, or save them as PDFs on the phone itself. Flight confirmations, hotel addresses, train tickets, insurance documents. A traveller whose entire itinerary lives in Gmail and whose VPN fails on day one is locked out of their own trip.
- Download the offline Chinese pack in Google Translate, which then works with no connection at all. Without it the app is a blank screen on the day you need it.
- Install everything at home. Not just the VPN — the maps, the payment apps, the ride-hailing app, the translation apps.
- Download offline maps for every city on your route.
Whether a VPN solves it#
Usually, with caveats: the well-known providers are actively targeted, so a service that worked last year may not work this year, and speeds fall around politically sensitive dates. Install two from different providers before arriving. A foreign SIM roaming into China often reaches the open internet without any VPN at all.
The part people underestimate#
The block is not an inconvenience layered on top of a normal internet. China has a complete parallel ecosystem — WeChat for messaging, Amap or Baidu for maps, Alipay for payment, Meituan and Dianping for food and reviews — and it is genuinely excellent. Visitors who spend their trip fighting to reach Google have a worse time than those who spend an hour before departure setting up the local equivalents.
For which apps to install and which Western services survive, see the guide to internet, VPNs and apps in China; for whether you need a VPN at all, do I need a VPN in China?